DETROIT -- Going cold would be an understatement. A wild understatement, at that. At one point in the second half, the Detroit Pistons went on a 23-0 run. The Boston Celtics had no answers.
On the surface, it seemed like a defensive problem. In a sense, it was. But the Celtics' offense put the defense in a consistently bad position.
Detroit's offense wasn't great. In the first half, the Celtics did well to slow the Pistons down, especially in the half-court. Yet when the latter portion of the third quarter came around, their lack of offensive production gave the Pistons a way to claw their way back into the game: Transition.
They ran. They sprinted the floor off every turnover and missed bucket. Because of that, they were able to play against a scrambling Celtics defense rather than the set, well-connected defense Boston showed off in the first season (and even in the first half).
"I mean, live-ball turnovers, you can't really defend those," Joe Mazzulla said post-game. "That's why you try to prevent them. And rim reads. Those put you at a five-on-four or a four-on-three, so you have to have double the effort getting back, trying to put those fires out. But the key is to not have those. To keep it five-on-five. And I thought our crashing also kind of waned a little bit in the second half. I thought it was much better in the first half than the second half."
Only one of the Celtics' five second-half turnovers was a live-ball turnover. A live-ball turnover is a turnover that happens when the ball is still in play: Pretty much any steal. Dead-ball turnovers include passes that go out of bounds, travels, and offensive fouls. Play stops, letting teams set up following the turnover.
Yet the one live-ball turnover still made Mazzulla's laundry list. Examples of when the Celtics gave Detroit daylight. When they aided the Pistons' second-half run.
"I mean, it was a couple of different things," Mazzulla said. "It was a few rim reads. We had one, I think Neemi [Neemias Queta] may or may not have gotten fouled. But we get a two-on-one there, we miss it, they come down, get a three-point play. Sam gets a great curl to the rim, I can't remember if it was [Jalen] Duren or [John] Collins helps, that's a block shot that goes to there. They pressure Luka [Garza], we have a live-ball turnover, that goes to three points there. So, just a combination of some of our live-ball turnovers, some of our offensive execution, and then their ability to take advantage of that."
I couldn't find perfect footage of the Queta play, though I believe Mazzulla was referencing this one. Paul George and Queta run the pick-and-roll, get a two-on-one going toward the rim, and fail to convert.
Whether or not Queta was fouled is irrelevant. The two-on-one George and Queta created is the exact type of situation you try to get on offense. Boston didn't capitalize. That's a wasted possession.
Then, on the very next Pistons play, the Celtics mess up their coverage. As Duncan Robinson comes up from the corner, Derrick White fails to follow him.
For a moment, it looks like White thinks he and Jordan Walsh are supposed to switch. Maybe White just messed up. Regardless, Walsh shifts his defense with Cade Cunningham, putting two on him and leaving nobody to follow Robinson.
Robinson sinks the three, and the Celtics go from missing an easy Queta shot at the rim on one end to giving up an open triple on the other because of a defensive mishap.
A bad rim read and a mixed-up defensive assignment. Two miscommunications simultaneously. That's how momentum is formed. In this case, Detroit benefitted. The Celtics still have some growing to do as a team.
"It's a learning process," George said. "We'll learn, we'll make adjustments, how to get better looks, better opportunities for one another, how to alleviate pressure and make the game easy for one another. That was the game, though. We rebound, and we get the possessions we want [while] being up 21, or whatever we were, we would have, not to say this would have been an easy matchup, but if we're in the driver's seat like that, we'll learn how to close those kinds of games."
The second instance Mazzulla mentioned was a missed Hauser rim look. Hauser does a great job of cutting to the rim, but Collins makes a nice play at the basket.
A great play. A great idea. Just a bad finish. Maybe Hauser should have looked to swing the ball to Walsh in the opposite corner, but that would have been a tough play to make.
Two points off the board for Boston, and the Pistons are about to take advantage. This isn't a turnover, but it's a live-ball transition chance for the Pistons, as Cunningham immediately pushes the ball up the floor.
Hauser tries to slow him down. 'Stop the ball.' That's what they teach you in elementary school ball. So, it makes sense here. Unfortunately, Hauser's attempt at a hustle play getting back means he's out of position.
As he scrambles to find his man on defense, White is desperately trying to point it out. He's pointing at Robinson. Robinson is the open man. The guy Hauser was supposed to pick up. He doesn't get there in time. Not for Robinson's range.
See how easy it is for a missed layup to turn into easy points for the other team? It forces you to scramble. You don't have a chance to set up your defense.
In this case, it was on Hauser. He missed the shot at the rim. He didn't finish the play. And when it came time to find his man on defense, he didn't do it in time.
But White could have done better, too. Maybe he should have scrambled out to Robinson and let Hauser pick up Javonte Green. Clearly, Hauser was still getting his bearings after the previous play. Regardless, nobody found the shooter. The ultimate basketball crime.
Lastly, Mazzulla mentioned the one live-ball turnover Boston committed in the second half. Garza got pressured by Paul Reed at the 3-point line, and it turned into a transition chance for Detroit.
Look at the way Cunningham pushes the pace as Garza is still getting up from the ground. As Hugo Gonzalez is still lagging back after making a half-hearted effort at the ball. He's trying to pick up Cunningham, but that's now two Celtics who aren't fully getting back.
The Pistons' capitalization isn't immediate. They don't get a breakaway dunk or open three in transition. But just because it didn't happen that way doesn't mean it's not connected.
As Cunningham brings the ball to the wing against White, look at Payton Pritchard, Jayson Tatum, and Garza. They are all still trying to figure out who they're supposed to be guarding. They're all trying to set up the defense.
Pritchard and Tatum switching in transition gives Cunningham an easy dump-in pass to Duren in the dunker spot. And since Tatum is still getting back in position, Duren gets around him quickly.
By then, White and Garza are trying to help pressure the ball, which the Celtics are supposed to do in their new-look defense. However, that only works when you have someone covering behind you.
Since Boston scrambled back in transition, the 'behind-you' help just isn't there. Garza rushes to the paint to help on Duren, and Pritchard is still recovering to where he thinks he's supposed to be on the court.
But after he and Tatum scrambled to switch in the paint, he didn't have time to track everyone. He was the 'behind-you' help. The guy who was supposed to be guarding two Pistons players as the Celtics pressured the ball. But he lost track of Green.
Those weren't the only mistakes the Celtics made. Tatum missed a ton of shots -- good ones and bad ones. Hauser fouled too much on defense. The Celtics fouled 3-point shooters and didn't crash the glass.
However, those connected mistakes were the hinge point of this game. They gave the Pistons life. They created momentum. They forced the Celtics out of their new defensive scheme and forced them to scramble.
But it's all connected. Just like how the Celtics' missed offensive opportunities made it harder for their defense, their lack of stops made it harder for the offense.
"I would honestly say it probably started on defense," Tatum said. "A couple times, we gave up an offensive rebound, they were scoring. Fouling. That kind of just slows the game down. Obviously, in the first half, and early in that third, we were at our best when we were getting stops, and we were able to push the pace."
It was one game. A few more shots go in, and the Pistons never have a chance to get out in transition and make their comeback. But that's not what happened.
What happened was a rough display of second-half basketball. Missed reads and costly mistakes led to easier opportunities for Detroit on the other end of the court, whatever end of the court that may be.
Boston just wasn't good enough in those spots. Those situations are how 23-0 runs happen. How momentum shifts. Those situations are what cost the Celtics what should have been an emphatic Opening Night (Day) victory.